Wike: Lessons from Umahi’s exit

BY EJIOFOR NWOKOLO

Some few weeks ago, Engr. Dave Umahi, a former State Chairman of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) in Ebonyi State, former Deputy Governor, and until recently serving his second term as Governor of the state on the platform of the PDP, defected from the party to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). Given his pre-eminent position as a governor and Chairman, South East Governors’ Forum, and even more so, the long history of his association with the PDP, the move came in a blaze of controversies; suffused in emotions and moral platitudes such that the reverberations will endure for a while.

But there is no denying the fact that his exit is a huge loss to the PDP, and like the bikini, what is hidden in that move is as interesting as what is revealed! And although his reasons still remain a bickering ground, one immutably stands out for its relevance and notoriety, and that is: that he left because of Governor Nyesom Wike’s overbearing influence in the affairs of the party!

Thus, beyond the deluge of altercations, beyond the recriminations, Umahi’s exit exposes an ominous underbelly of the party such that the PDP needs a deeper introspection and self-examination.

Speaking on the “Arise TV” morning program on the 18th November, 2020, in the aftermath of his exit, Gov. Umahi unequivocally pointed at Gov. Wike’s overarching meddlesomeness in the affairs of the party and the damage it has done to its fabrics as the major reason for his exit. In his words, “Wike’s dictatorial tendencies and overbearing influence on the party’s affairs had made other governors unhappy with him. Wike must know that one person cannot be called a crowd. He must know that a lot of governors in the PDP are not happy with him. He remote-controls the party”!

Elsewhere in the neighboring Bayelsa State, the former governor Seriake Dickson, also of the PDP, had cause to warn Governor Wike sometime in December 2019, to acknowledge that he is not a headmaster over other governors, and that indeed, “Bayelsa is not an annex of Rivers State”! Beyond this, Governor Wike has had similar brushes with other PDP governors including Prof. Ben Ayade of Cross River and Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom states.

At the national level, Wike is known to have appropriated the national Chairmanship of the party, determines where and when the party’s congresses and conventions are held, and had to be resisted in his quest to nominate a representative from his state, Hon. Kingsley Chinda as the Minority Leader of the 9th session of the House of Representatives! All sacrifices to contain his imperial ego had ended without yielding any results. He is like the proverbial godhead that demands blood for propitiation, and which does not take palm oil simply because it is red! So what are the missions of Governor Wike?

Even from the days of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo as President, the pre-eminent position of PDP governors in the policy directions of the party had long been established. They are the engine rooms of the party at the state level such that it is given that they are also the leaders of the party in their various states. As a governor himself, Wike knows this much and ought to know the implications of incurring the disaffection of his colleagues. Therefore, the loss of a sitting governor of the party, is without doubt a damaging blow to the very foundations of the party in any state.

Umahi’s accusations against Wike are hinged on two fronts – hijacking the party structures and interfering in the internal affairs of states that have PDP governors. These are by all means weighty and, if not addressed, would spell doom for the continued existence of the party. As Gov. Umahi stated, one person does not constitute a crowd! The word “party” connotes that people are needed and democracy shuns at all such aberrant dictatorial tendencies as easily exhibited by Gov. Wike. A governor is a governor and deserves all the respects and courtesies accorded to any other governor. One governor cannot whimsically arrogate to himself the headmastership of other governors and expect peace in the party in the long run. PDP is going through a trying period and does not need a bully to pull through.

In the nature of third world politics, a ruling party has all the latitudes of coercion such that it takes extra commitment, diplomacy and goodwill to sustain opposition. In the Nigerian context, the odds are even more compelling as various names could easily be given to a dog in order to hang it. Thus beyond all such swashbuckling tendencies, beyond the vainglory, Gov. Wike must realize that the cliché, “let us go”, is not a one man’s journey!

The PDP needs the governors now more than any other period in her history for the party to survive. And as experience has proven, loyalty to a party in Nigeria is not in any way religious, and people have changed parties so freely that Nigerian politics has redefined the principles of party affiliation and ideology. There is therefore no string that can pull back any governor who by acts of such interference, decides to leave the PDP. And each governor that leaves kills the PDP the more inevitably. PDP was conceived and, to a large extent, still remains a national party and cannot be subjected to the megalomaniac nuances and foibles of one man. Any such ambition would inexorably sing its nunc dimitis.

On an election day, Gov. Wike can only function in his own state and nothing more! Even that may really be difficult for him going further. The benevolent spirit which cracked his palm kernel during the last general elections in his state, whereof all APC candidates were disqualified from the elections, may not repeat itself anymore. His former godfather and benefactor Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi, a Minister and one of the driving forces in the APC, has already sounded a warning that he is coming back. The implications of that is not lost on any discerning observer. Gov. Wike should better seek to manage the log in his own eyes before seeking to remove the speck in other governors’ eyes!

Nwokolo lives in Abuja.